Anand foxes teenager Carlsen

Leon:

India's Viswanathan Anand scored a fluent victory over Magnus Carlsen of Norway taking an early lead in the second semifinal of the 18th Magistral Ciudad de Leon chess tournament. It turned out to be another mismatch with a twist in the tale as the world rapid champion, Anand, gave no chance to his 14-year old opponent forcing a victory in just 30 moves. The event that is being played on a knockout basis has already seen Fide champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov emerge as a finalist after he beat Spaniard Alexei Shirov in a one-sided contest on Friday. Kasimdzhanov had won both his black games to knockout Shirov by a 3-1 margin in the four-match game. While Anand still has to play his remaining three games in the match against Carlsen, in all likelihood he is going to be the other finalist of this rapid event to cross sword with Kasimdzhanov in the final slated for Sunday. Carlsen backed the Petroff defence and was in for a surprise as Anand did not employ the in-vogue variation. The Indian ace played the opening in copybook fashion, exchanging pieces at will after Carlsen sacrificed a pawn and reached an endgame almost in a jiff. The final position saw Anand sacrificing his rook for a knight to march his pawn to glory. (PTI)